The WRC provides participants with the therapy, education, skills practice, and support needed to be successful in recovery.
Program Details:
VOA programs offer an integrated array of services designed to address the needs of the whole person, family and community. Just as a lifestyle of addiction and crime wreaks havoc in every area of an individual’s life, recovery from addiction requires that he/she address issues in every area of his/her life. In response to this reality, our trauma-informed program services are designed to provide Participants with a holistic, integrated set of strategies, skills, information, insights, and experiences that will equip them to accomplish multiple goals and to re-enter their communities successfully. These include confronting the economic conditions that contribute to chemical dependency while also building insight and skills around a variety of issues such as social support, harmful thinking patterns, criminality, trauma, mental health, compassion for self, emotional regulation, mindfulness, domestic violence, sex work, relationships, parenting, nutrition, and exercise.
Participants have the opportunity to develop a relationship with a therapist who meets with them weekly and assists them in efforts to make changes in their lives through helping them set goals, address barriers, and measure their progress. As an adjunct to this therapy and in order to provide transition of care upon discharge, Participants may be referred to a community mental health provider.
The WRC offers a variety of evidence-based therapeutic groups that provide participants with opportunities to learn and process new information, gain personal insight, receive from and offer support to their peers, and practice new skills around issues such as addiction, mental health, mindfulness, healthy relationships, relapse prevention, sex work, trauma recovery, and others.
Participants meet with a Counselor or Case Management Specialist who works with them to assess and plan for their long-term employment, housing, educational, physical and mental health, childcare and other needs and be supported through the referral process to appropriate services. They may also receive vocational training through participating in the VOA Oregon Employment Readiness Program.
Many VOA Oregon participants are challenged by trauma and other mental health issues in addition to their addiction issues. VOA Oregon ensures that they receive the care they need through providing counseling services with Qualified Mental Health Professionals (QMHPs) who understand the complex inter-connectedness of these issues, therapeutic groups in which participants learn skills that enable them to cope with these issues, and referral to community providers for ongoing care. The services of a Licensed Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and a Naturopathic Doctor are available on-site to provide assessment, psychopharmacological therapy and alternative treatments such as acupuncture. Medication management is provided by milieu staff.
Programs work with each Participant to enroll in health insurance and to obtain a primary care provider. VOA Oregon partners with the National College of Naturopathic Medicine to provide on-site health clinics that provide gender specific health check-ups and follow up care. Other partners also provide on-site acupuncture and chiropractic clinics, health and family planning education and STI prevention and screening services.
Mom’s with kids at the WRC work with a counselor who provides support with parenting issues, teaches parenting skills, and, provides help support with the CPS and court system. Parents Anonymous meetings are held on-site. The WRC also offers a weekly Family Group that provides education and support to families and significant others of participants.
Programs provide recreational activities, cultural celebrations, education, and groups which address the unique social and treatment needs of different ethnicity, sexual orientations, and spirituality. The WRC also partners with community providers that offer culturally-specific peer mentoring, recovery activities such as dances and retreats, and spiritual practice opportunities such as Native American sweats, ritual and church services.
In order to give participants the opportunity to build the foundations of a clean and sober support system, programs provides daily transportation and on-site access to a variety of self-help meetings such as AA, NA, DD, and SMART. An integral part of a Participant’s treatment experience involves building a support network of clean and sober friends.
Through attending varied recreational activities such as movies, camping, sporting events, theatre, ballet, OMSI, zoo, library, gym, writing workshops, and arts and crafts class, Participants receive the opportunity to experience the full range of rewarding experiences that are available in a clean and sober lifestyle. The men’s residential center participants and WRC women participate together in a recovery softball league.
Participants work with a case manager to develop a plan for housing and are strongly encouraged and supported with resources to move to clean and sober housing upon completion of inpatient services. VOA also operates 4 clean and sober transitional houses for women and their children.
The WRC community meditates, walks, and practices Yoga together daily. With exercise and meditation, participants gain the ability to reconnect with and strengthen their bodies, cope with relapse and mental health triggers, and strengthen their ability to make healthy choices.
Upon completion of the program, WRC participants are encouraged to come back to visit the program to receive support and meals as well as to provide support to current participants. They are invited to annual block parties, picnics, recreational events, and holiday celebrations and are honored annually at our Alumni Celebration.